Aurora Leigh

In her letter, Lady Waldemar reprimands Aurora for the scolding tone of the poet’s own letter about Marian. Lady Waldemar also asserts that she no longer loves Romney and describes how Romney confessed his love for Aurora while Lady Waldemar was nursing him back to health after a fever. Lady Waldemar states that she has read Aurora’s book and coldly concludes that “male poets are preferable” (Line 65). She left Romney, and later, he and Lord Howe returned to chastise her for the wrong she did Marian. Now in the letter, she apologizes for hurting Marian but claims that she believed she was doing the right thing. According to Lady Waldemar, she sent Marian away to Australia with a maid of hers, and she blames the maid for Marian’s ill fortune in France. Lady Waldemar claims that she has other suitors and offers them to Aurora. She concludes by announcing her hatred for Aurora and cursing her. 

Though Romney is not married to Lady Waldemar, he considers himself to be engaged to Marian Erle. When Marian enters the conversation, she asks Romney whether he will take her and the child as his own, and he says that he will.